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chapters 1-8 these are arm bands that the Jews had to wear to let the Nazis know they were Jewish.

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Yaneks literal journey

Yanek and his family live in Krakow, but in just a blink of an eye, their city was invaded by the Germans beginning WWII. For now, Yanek and his family remain in Krakow. for a little while they stay in their flat with several other families. Anti-semitic rules have been put in place that persecute Jewish people, taking away any rights they have. Over time walls are built up around a ghetto to contain the remaining Jews who have not been taken away for resettlement or deportation yet. One by one, many Jews were relocated to other ghettos, work camps, and concentration camps, or were killed on-site.

Yaneks figurative journey

with the stress of no food and constant hiding, Yanek fears being caught by the Nazis. His emotional state is one of constant terror and he panics at what awaits him at every turn. The unknown aspects of the war leave a feeling of being unsettled. Yanek's early life as a 10-year-old boy before the war was normal. He attended school, played with his friends, and went to the synagogue with his family. He loves his mom and dad and looks up to them but as the war continues Yanek begins to doubt his father's constant hopefulness and positivity and wonders who is right- his father or his Uncle Moshe. "I still worry he was wrong but fresh bread made me forget all my troubles. For a little while at least." (pg 25) doubting your parents for the first time is a struggle for Yanek especially in war-torn.

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Ch. 9-12 The barracks where prisoners where housed and the wire fencing and guard towers.

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Yanek's Figurative Journey

"We can't let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world," said Uncle Moshe. Yanek, on his way home from a friend's house in the Krakow ghetto, saw his parents marching in a line of people getting relocated and he was already in shock and lonely because he was a 13-year-old boy with nobody to look after and take care of him. Soon, he was what they called relocated to a camp but this was just a euphemism because they did tareable things and made is sound like they were just moving. When he got to the first camp he experienced roll call for the first time and Amon Goeth had his dogs attack somebody right next to Yanek. Yanek was panicking and wanting to help the poor guy but he couldn't there was no way. He was fighting many emotions but he was told he couldn't have any. So he had to bottle up his feelings for his time in that camp.

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Wieliczka Salt Mine, Daniłowicza, Wieliczka, Poland

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Chapter 13 salt mine that Yanek walked in and some salt mines are available to see today.

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Wieliczka Salt Mine, Daniłowicza, Wieliczka, Poland

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Wieliczka Salt Mine, Daniłowicza, Wieliczka, Poland

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Yaneks literal journey

When Yanek gets relocated to Wielicza, he gets assigned to work at a salt mine and the kapo shows the prisoners where they would be working and how to get there. Then, when they got back to the camp they were late to get their rations of food so they had to go to bed hungry. After that, the next day in the salt mine everyone was working and doing their job somebody got murdered and got salt rubbed in his wounds. after that, they went on with their day but probably struggled from such a gruesome sight. and didn't talk about it again.

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ch.14 Yanek has to move rocks back and fourth in the camp just because the Nazis wanted to play games.

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Yanek's figurative journey

Yanek wanted to fight against the nazis and he was thinking about even though they had weapons all of the prisoners could get together and fight them. However, during the roll call that day, somebody had the same idea as him and attacked the officer but he got killed and then 6 innocent people suffered a consequence for the one person's actions. So Yanek decided to step back and not do that so innocent people don't get hurt because of him. He was going through a rollercoaster of emotions "but angry as I was at the nazis, I was even angrier at my fellow prisoners...To suffer quietly only to hurt you, to suffer loudly, violently, angrily, -to fight back- was to bring hurt and pain and death to others." (pg 109-112) This just shows his emotions and how they changed throughout his time there.

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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ch.15-18 , the prisoners were transported through these cattle cars and they were so compacted in here and they couldn't move.

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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Birkenau, Ofiar Faszyzmu, Brzezinka, Poland

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Yaneks literal journey

Yanek and other prisoners have marched up a ramp at gunpoint, shoved into a cattle car, tightly squeezed, barely able to breathe, with no food or water for 3 and a half days, while being tortured by their thoughts about where they could be headed and wondering if they would meet their demise. On the way there, at a train stop, anti-Semitic people were yelling at the prisoners telling them about how the Nazis were going to turn them into soap and kill them in the gas chambers. This scared everybody. People were passing away around Yanek and one guy died leaning on his shoulder so Yanek was very smooshed against the wall of the car. This was a good and a bad thing, you see, he was lucky enough to be standing right next to a window in the car and it was snowing. While all the prisoners were smashed in the tiny train, Yanek was squeezing his arm out to reach for the snow and eat it because he was dying of thirst, so once he ate the snow, he was better. When they got to the death camp they were all in tears knowing they were going to pass away and they had to sit in the train car for half a day.

Yaneks figurative journey

Yanek was at his lowest low when he first got to the camp, "kill me I prayed please kill me and put an end to this. I'm ready." this shows he was ready to die and didn't want to fight for his life anymore and just give up. Then, the gas did not come out and water came out instead. The book talked about how it was like a rebirth and how he wanted to feel more human again and not let the nazis tear him from the pages of the world. Some things Yanek did to feel human included, showering (rinseing off with water), brushing his teeth (rubbing water on his teeth), being kind to people, and standing at the end of the food line to get whatever chunks of food might've sunk to the bottom. These things made him want to live, keep fighting, and be human again. Yanek was given a second chance, "it was like I was born again. I had survived, and I would keep surviving." this shows how he wanted to fight unlike at the beginning of his time at Birkenau he just wanted it to be over.

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ch. 19-22 "work sets you free" to tell the prisoners that if they work they could be free to ease their nerves.

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Yaneks Literal Journey

While Yanek was at Auschwitz which was an extermination 'death' camp, Alli troops began to send bombs and bomb nearby camps so the nazi leaders started to flee. they called this "The Death March." they walked in the cold winter snowy weather for 9-12 days. People who couldn't keep up would be shot or they just died from the cold weather. It was horrible; they had wooden shoes and no socks, and not everyone had shoes. their feet were blocks of ice. While they walked through cities and towns free people would kill them or through food at them. they only got half a loaf of bread for the whole trip. It was truly devastating.

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ch.24 on the death march Yanek had an idea of wear he was because of the radio tower

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Yaneks Literal Journey

On the death march, Yanek was weak, freezing, and starving from walking for almost 10 days only eating half a loaf of bread. he was trying to save his bread and eat it slowly because he did not know how long it would be. While Yanek was walking, he noticed a kid who was close to his age and reminded him of his late friend Fred. The kid he noticed could not walk well and he was getting behind in the march. even though Yanek was weak and could barely hold himself up, he decided to help the kid walk, he picked up the kid's arm and let him lean on him. Yanek was struggling and asking people for help and nobody would do it until some random old man showed up and said he would help. After they got to wherever they were sleeping for the night, they put the kid down and thought he'd be dead by morning. The second after Yanek set the kid down, he reached for his bread to take a bite and it was not there. Yanek needed food and he needed it fast, he thought to take the kid's food but he was having internal conflict because he didn't want to be a bad person he was so hungry and thought the kid would be dead in the morning anyway so why did it matter. In the morning, Yanek tried to take his bread but he was alive and better than yesterday and Yanek was thinking about how the kid was supposed to die and how he needed food. He was wishing death on this random kid he just had helped. when they got to the camp they had food and a week of rest to regain their strength.

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ch 24. Yanek was at Bergen-Belsen and so was Anne frank

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Yaneks literal journey

Yanek got shipped off in a train to Bergen-Belsen in a cattle car once again. Nazis dropped loaves of bread on the top of the car to watch the prisoners fight over it. It was a tight squeeze but got easier to breath when people started dropping. When they arrived at the camp, the commandment was angry that they were all skin and bones and sorted them into 2 groups. When Yanek was put in one he was puzzled and didn't know if he was in the good or the bad group. He was in a good group. They ended up getting a week of rest and rich good food to eat until they got ready to work again. This was good and bad because before they were eating bad food and now that they had good food it was making people sick so Yanek traded his soup for more bread to prevent getting too sick in the camp. after they started to work again a horrible murderer Kapo punched Yanek right in the nose and every time he saw Yanek he would beat him up and Yanek was sure he wouldn't survive. He had to find a way to get out. The only way to get away was to race to see if you were strong enough so that is exactly what Yanek did. he ended up winning the race and being able to get out. at the end of the chapter, he says "I had gotten away from moon face for good," this foreshadows that he might not have escaped for good because you think one thing and the other might happen.

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ch. 25 there was a zoo and the animals were treated better than the prisoners.

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Yaneks figurative journey

Yanek was treated horribly at this camp and at this camp, there was a zoo, a cinema, and things to entertain the nazis. At the zoo, the animals were treated better than the prisoners, and the prisoners were treated like animals. For example, the bears in the zoo got to eat meat and goods while the prisoners ate watery soup and bread. Another example is that the prisoners had to be strapped to and haul a cart or buggy up a hill while singing, the nazis called them the singing horses. One day some guards tied up a big buck in a fence and Yanek was enraged and mad that they were treating suck a beautiful animal so badly which made him think that's exactly what the nazis did to the prisoners. he did not like that he could not do anything about the harm they committed to the animal. After a leader figured out what happened to the buck he fired both guards. This is messed up because they care so much about the animals but not about the prisoners.

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Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoznica, Ofiar Gross Rosen, Rogoźnica, Poland

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ch. 26 Yanek dreamed about sunny skies and being saved by allies so this is an Alli plane

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Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoznica, Ofiar Gross Rosen, Rogoźnica, Poland

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Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoznica, Ofiar Gross Rosen, Rogoźnica, Poland

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Yaneks Literal Journey

Yanek had to take a cattle car trip and was giving up. This time they were on the train, they were given no food or water, so it was even more torturous. He would say how there was so much death around him that it was almost normal. Almost. When Yanek got to the camp and got off the cattle car bodies upon bodies fell out and people just stepped over them and tried to ignore it. He was put right to work and wasn't given time to rest like at the last camp. While at work, one of the leaders pointed out that Yanek was missing a button on his shirt, a crime in the camps. 20 lashes. Yanek was supposed to get 20 lashes on his back, but he got well over that amount. He was dragged back to his shelf that they called barracks when they were finished and he had to sleep on his stomach because he was hurt so badly. Yanek woke up to the barracks shaking, gunshots, and explosions from the bombs in nearby camps. They were going to have to move. Again. That would be it with no train, no cattle car, Their feet, and legs.

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Ch.29 on the way to dachau camp one of the train cars got bombed and destroyed all of the documents.

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Yaneks literal journey

Yanek had to go in a cattle car again on the way to the next camp. On the way one of the cars near him got bombed and all of the documents were destroyed so they had no clue who anyone was. Yanek decides they wouldn't know he was Jewish if he wasn't standing with the Jews so he took off his yellow Star of David patch and when they got off the train he tried to stand with the poles and switch sides. Somebody who might've been anti-semitic or just felt like being rude ratted him out so he went back and stood with the Jews his plan did not work. When he got into the camp it was complete chaos and they did not have to work so they just slept one day they woke up and there were no SS guards and no officers to wake them up. They thought it was a trick but nobody was there when they walked out of their barracks. They started to see officers at the gate and some people were scared and ran back to their barracks and some stayed in the open. Yanek saw a tank with an American flag on it and that's when he knew the war was ending and he would be Liberated by the Allies.

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ch. 30 When Yanek got to the little town in Munich he saw a lot of beds and got his own bunk all to himself.

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Yaneks figurative journey

When Yanek got to his new living place he was confused and was happy he got basic needs like a toothbrush and a bed. When they sat at a table for dinner many people were crying because they were glad they were free but they also were mourning the loss of life they had because of the war. Asking for a simple thing like "can you pass the salt," brought people so much joy and made them feel close to normal again. The next day Yanek was on a walk around his little town and he saw a familiar face, it was his mean old neighbor Ms Immerglick. She hugs him and they are both so happy to see someone they know she tells Yanek she was with his cousin in their house so he goes to see and he is so happy some of his family is alive. They lived together and they were all so mixed with emotions. Some happy, some sad, and mostly confused but glad they were out of misery.